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This article was originally published by the Texas Observer<\/a>, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter<\/a>, or follow them on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Big-city traffic and a resolution on New Year\u2019s Eve of 2020 led Pflugerville resident Kelsey Black to become a bookseller. <\/p>\n An avid reader, she disliked the hour round trip required to get from her suburb of 65,000 to downtown Austin to browse a bookstore. \u201cOK,\u201d she told herself, \u201cI think it\u2019s just going to be easier for me to \u2026 start my own bookstore.\u201d <\/p>\n Turned out, it wasn\u2019t easy at all, \u201cbut it\u2019s OK because I have now found my calling,\u201d Black said. The Book Burrow<\/a> began as a pop-up and online business and finally, on August 6, opened as a brick-and-mortar store. She said the 200-square-foot space has become a haven for those who don\u2019t feel like they fit in elsewhere, drawn by the store\u2019s motto: \u201cEmbrace your weird.\u201d For her, the phrase means cultivating love for whatever makes you unique: \u201cEmbrace your gender identity; embrace your sexual identity; embrace your racial background; embrace your spiritual path.\u201d <\/p>\n Apparently, she is good at creating a welcoming atmosphere. Multiple strangers came out to her the day the Burrow opened its doors. \u201cWe have a story for everybody in our little bookstore,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n New independent bookstores in Texas are blossoming as in the rest of the country, and many of the more established ones are \u201changing in there\u201d by writing and rewriting their own stories. A passion for books and people and a willingness to embrace change seem to be among the key requirements. Many managers talk about retooling their businesses to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Some stores had to rethink who their customer base was and find new allies. And it looks like book-banning efforts in this state aren\u2019t all that bad for the indie bookstore business. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a story for everybody in our little bookstore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cIt definitely seems like bookstore openings are on the uprise again. I just heard [of] about four more,\u201d said Kristine Hall, publisher of Lone Star Literary Life<\/em><\/a>, which covers independent bookstores in Texas. When she went to a regional conference in April, she said, \u201cBooksellers there said they are stepping up their sidelines, which account for a lot of their revenue.\u201d Overall, the industry is just always \u201con and off, on and off,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s always the Amazon anti-Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n In many cases, surviving and thriving has meant developing a second line of business, becoming a \u201cbookstore and\u201d\u2014a bookstore and a coffeeshop. A bookstore and a gift shop. Or art gallery. Or wine seller. North of Abilene, in the small town of Stamford, the Noteworthy bookstore and gift shop actually helps support the local newspaper whose offices it shares. In Fort Worth, Leaves Book and Tea Shop<\/a> probably sells as much Earl Grey as it does books, but its stated mission is one shared by just about every indie bookstore: to \u201ccreate a community gathering place where you can pause from the hectic pace of daily life.\u201d <\/p>\n Julia Green, manager of Front Street Books<\/a> in Alpine, said that according to the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association, registrations of new members are up. \u201cWe\u2019re gaining more than we\u2019re losing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Front Street, in one incarnation or another, has been around since about 1996; Green has worked there for most of that time. On a recent, crisp morning, the bookstore was busy. People came in the front door or from the back, where the bookstore connects to Cedar Coffee Supply. <\/p>\n \u201cWe get a ton of business, people wandering back and forth\u201d between coffeeshop and bookstore, Green said. The store offers sections on Texas-Mexico border issues, women\u2019s issues, LGBTQ+ authors and topics, and other interests. The shelves of traditional mysteries and romances are near the back of the store. <\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to be a welcoming space regardless of your politics,\u201d she said. People should be able to \u201cfind a home here, find a book here, regardless of what you believe or what we believe. \u2026 That is something true to indies. It\u2019s kind of our whole point.\u201d <\/p>\n Green said the store has never gotten complaints or threats because someone didn\u2019t like the books they offer. But then, she said, she has heard of no attempts to ban books in Alpine schools or libraries, as has happened in many allegedly more cosmopolitan areas.<\/p>\n By contrast, Black said someone once complained to the Pflugerville mayor that the Burrow was \u201cpromoting Satanic ideology\u201d at a farmer\u2019s market event because of a book whose cover showed a part-woman, part-scorpion hybrid, \u201cand that we can\u2019t have that in a Christian nation.\u201d The mayor called the farmer\u2019s market manager, who looked at her table, and then, Black said, had a laugh with her over it. <\/p>\n In some markets, Hall said, book-banning attempts<\/a> have actually helped independent bookstores by \u201cgiving them a campaign to throw themselves behind.\u201d In that context, she said, \u201cbookstores are safe places.\u201d<\/p>\n In San Antonio, the Nowhere Bookshop<\/a>, founded by author Jenny Lawson, reacted to a local school district\u2019s book-banning attempt by offering to donate up to 250 copies of the book in question\u2014the award-winning Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre<\/em> by Carole Boston Weatherford\u2014to local educators. <\/p>\n Manager Elizabeth Jordan said more than 120 educators have signed up thus far for the free copies and that people have expressed interest in donating to the effort. \u201cWe \u2026 hope we have created an environment that makes Nowhere feel like a safe space for historically marginalized communities,\u201d she said. The store opened to curbside business in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. The physical store, which offers a coffee, wine, and beer bar, opened in July of this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest reason we got through 2020 was the neighborhood wanting to support its bookstores.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Dallas seems a thriving locale for indies. Deep Vellum Bookstore<\/a> (in Deep Ellum, of course) and the publishing house of the same name call themselves \u201cthe heart and soul of the literary community in Dallas,\u201d a boast backed up by the bookstore\u2019s calendar, filled with information on readings, author interviews, and exhibits. Interabang Books, in North Dallas, has survived a tornado and flooding as well as the pandemic and is now at a point where it\u2019s doing \u201cextremely well,\u201d according to the store\u2019s business manager. On the west side of town, the Bishop Arts District now boasts four or five indie bookstores, including the tiny Poets Bookshop<\/a>.<\/p>\n Poets is owned by the same trio who owns Cigar Arts next door, which has been around for about a decade. When the neighboring space became vacant in 2017, co-owner Marco Cavazos said, they opened up a hat shop \u201cbecause we thought hats would be a cool fit for the neighborhood.\u201d Their mistake, he said, was that \u201cwe weren\u2019t passionate about hats.\u201d So they turned to books, which all three were passionate about. The cigar shop and bookshop are mostly separate, business-wise, Cavazos said, rather than either one depending on the other.<\/p>\n Cavazos, who writes both poetry and fiction, originally envisioned the shop as a collaborative poetry studio where people would come to write\u2014on manual typewriters, no less\u2014read, and create art. Adding a book component \u201cjust made sense,\u201d he said, even more so because the pandemic quickly put a stop to shared workspaces. So the bookstore continued, with books getting delivered to local customers. \u201cThe biggest reason we got through 2020 was the neighborhood wanting to support its bookstores,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n A few blocks away, The Wild Detectives<\/a> bookstore has been a wild success for years because it\u2019s also a bar and an event venue. On a Sunday afternoon, the backyard of the little repurposed house was full of chess players, readers, students studying, and a family birthday party. A few kids ran around, and someone tended to a cocker spaniel in a baby carriage. Inside at the bar, an artist was sipping a drink and sketching, and customers were lined up to order drinks and food and pay for books. The space at the front of the room, often set up for poetry and prose readings, was reconfigured for the daytime crowds. <\/p>\n In North Dallas, business manager Brian Weiskopf said Interabang is \u201cdoing extremely well. It\u2019s nice to have writers back on the road. \u2026 We have a vibrant signed first-edition club. And we\u2019ve also rolled out a child subscription program\u201d for their youngest readers. People love the convenience of Amazon, \u201cbut they also love the feel of a real book,\u201d he said. \u201cThey like our expertise \u2026 that personal touch.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s in the future? \u201cI\u2019ve heard that many people would love to have this kind of bookstore on their side of town,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019d love to expand our footprint. But we can\u2019t do it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Other store owners say they are maintaining rather than looking to expand. BookWoman<\/a>, Austin\u2019s original feminist bookstore, is at that stage, according to owner Susan Post. On the other hand, that\u2019s what they\u2019ve been doing since 1975, sustained by the locals\u2019 love for its eclectic selection and its storied history. The business began as part of the great feminist bookstore movement, which saw hundreds of similar shops pop up around the country and internationally in the 1970s and \u201980s. Post said fewer than a half-dozen stores from that time remain. <\/p>\n There was a moment early in the pandemic when the store flourished, she said, as disrupted supply chains sent people looking for new, local sources for what they needed. The store\u2019s small footprint and minimal staff meant BookWoman was able to stay open with curbside pickup when other bookstores were forced to close. <\/p>\n She recalled a day when the counter was piled high with orders ready to be mailed. \u201cWe must have shipped like 30 boxes of books,\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd it went on like that for a year.\u201d <\/p>\n The rush is over now, however. \u201cNow that\u2019s really fallen off because people are socializing, going to movies, going on vacation,\u201d Post said. <\/p>\n Still, the store cultivated new, loyal customers during that time and diversified into new income streams, from t-shirts to a non-Amazon-owned company that lets customers order audio books alongside the traditional kind. BookWoman, like many stores, has also partnered with bookshop.org, an online bookseller that shares 30 percent of sales with brick-and-mortar stores. The site generates a small income for her store, Post said, \u201cbut we make more if they order directly through our website.\u201d<\/p>\n In Fort Worth, The Dock Bookshop<\/a> is also \u201cmaintaining,\u201d said Donna Craddock, who owns the roomy eastside store with her sister Donya. As one of the largest African American-owned full-service bookstores in the state, The Dock does on a larger scale what many smaller stores, like Book Burrow, also do: try to offer something for everyone while also providing in-depth material for underserved groups. They also have a large section of children\u2019s books. Since the store opened in 2008, Donna said, they\u2019ve watched some young customers grow up. \u201cWe do have some bookstore babies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When the pandemic started, Donya Craddock said, The Dock had already embraced a variety of platforms to bring customers in, including podcasts like the Dock Power Hour. Still, she said, \u201ca lot of people weren\u2019t working, and books were not in the hierarchy of need.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dock was close to shutting its doors when a national tragedy changed things. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a movement that the Craddock sisters call \u201ca great awakening\u201d rolled into The Dock.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were willing to break down walls and try to learn about other groups. People were grappling with this thing called racism,\u201d Donna said. And to learn, they came to The Dock. <\/p>\n \u201cThis section here,\u201d she said, pointing to shelves of books on race relations, \u201cwe didn\u2019t have this section\u201d\u2014that is, not nearly as many books on that topic. \u201cIt just blew up on us. \u2026 It was awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n Included in that wave were a lot of European Americans. They\u2019d had some of those customers before, Donna said, but many more started showing up. \u201cIt helped save the bookstore.\u201d That wave eventually subsided, but some new customers stuck around. Even with that, though, business still isn\u2019t back to pre-COVID levels.<\/p>\n As it always has been, involvement with the community is a key to their survival, both women said. The Dock hosts community meetings, family book nights, spoken-word events, and author events. This year the store was a founding sponsor of the Trinity River Book Festival, in which more than 30 authors participated. \u201cIt was very well received and we will definitely be doing it again next year,\u201d Donya said. <\/p>\n Across town, Leaves Book and Tea has also stabilized since the pandemic, owner Tina Howard said. \u201cI believe as our society feels fractured in many ways, bookstores are still held as a place of ideas and perspectives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n
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